Time Value

A last word from my Tax Prof, the Great Hatfield,

"You only have a certain amount of time. And when it is over, you are dead. Don't try to be the best at everything. It really isn't that important."

Pastoral Advice

In one of his daily emails, my pastor was discussing Acts 1:8. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

He goes on to say: Being a witness sharing Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spiritis the supreme service of every child of God. It is not only a mark of spiritual maturity, but it is also a means of developing that spiritual and Christian maturity. In Mark 1:17, Jesus said, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." If you're following, you should be fishing!

He ended the email saying that if you are following Christ, then you should be fishing for men.

Apologizing in advance for the sarcasm, I must say...Dude, what do you think women have been doing for centuries?? Fishing! For men! I think it is about time we re-stocked the lake since I've taken the only good fish in there! ;)

Say what? Line 48 conspiracy

The sticky-smiled politicians have another card up their sleves. You know all those tax cuts way back when in 2001? I suppose it was a great election bargaining chip at some point, but tax payers are starting to notice something called The Alternative Minimum Tax.

The Alternative Minimum Tax is an alternative to the income tax…and it is to ensure that every single tax payer pays something. No one who gets an ecnonoic benefit gets to skip out, not the super-rich, not the burger flippers.

Every tax payer is obligated by law to compute their income tax liability and their alternative tax liability and pay the greater of the two. Just see line 48 on the 1040 form! The AMT is covering more and more people because it is not indexed for inflation, and people are paying less and less in income tax because of tax cuts. The AMT was designed to account for the super-rich, but more and more people who aren't super-rich are paying this. By 2010, about 30 million tax payers will be paying this. Most married couples who make over 100k will pay this today.

You know, every single congressman who voted for the tax cuts knew about the AMT. The government has to be funded somehow, right? It would be nice if our elected representatives were a little more forthright about what they are actually doing! Then again, what kind of politician is upfront? None that I know of!

For more information on the Alternative Minimum Tax, click here.

Daddy, may I?

So, the dean of Baylor Law School thought it would be a good idea to close off the library during finals for his son's prom date. Say what? You have to wonder how the son begged and whined.

Link Here

Easter Pics

Brian the Drunkard...look at the size of that drink!


Brad and Crystal


Brandon and I, after church at Brian's place


After church at Brian's place


Me and B, on our way to church


My awesome friend Jen!


Doh! Weggie!

Eternal Games

I love C.S. Lewis. His brilliant prose have inspired me in so many ways. There is an article called The Screwtape Emails that continues the dialogue from The Screwtape Letters. Here are a couple of paragraph that hit very close to home for me.

"You have a solid foundation to work with: Her concept of Father is completely whacked. With the various vermin known as motherÂ’s boyfriends, and the long absences between them, and then that odd relationship with her biological father, there is hardly a chance of her finding any comfort in that despicable metaphor of our Enemy as a loving Father."

"Why don’t you hook up your subject with a nice intellectual, moral fellow? He'll give her all the attention she desires, and he'’ll agree with most of those dogmas she hears in class. Keep her focused on the goodness of his actions, and assist her in noticing the constant failure of Christians to live up to their own ideals. Soon you will have her believing that the old mores are unnecessarily restrictive, and she will do even those things she now thinks she'’ll never do. (What a glorious day that shall be!)"

"Well done! In record time, you have made your subject almost certainly ours! You talked her right out of that nonsense about her body being the temple of the Holy Ghost; you even led her away from thinking that her identity is more than her corpus. You numbed her mind with ambivalence until she experienced herself only as a center of physical pleasures and pains; after that it was a snap to lure her into her first sexual experience. She walked right into your net, her soul completely cut off from its origins."

"If she does start to show remorse, pile on the guilt to create secrecy, spin secrecy to create paranoia, and use the paranoia to cause her to interpret every smile as a sign that the Christians around her must be judging her, and the next thing you know, she will be avoiding church altogether and finding comfort in the company of people closer to Hell than herself."

Of course, as per my immediately previous post, God's forgiveness is boundless. Sin is a part of life for everyone; unfortunately, repentance isn't. Faith is of course the key. Perhaps the truest test of our heart's desire is how we respond when the Holy Spirit moves us to make a choice we would rather not make, i.e., ending the sin. This is the third time in my life I've had to make such a choice, but at least this time I have someone to make the choice with me.

Lessons from a sinner

The bible is the best script for our lives. Life is tough; it is full of tough choices and tougher consequences. Who better to learn from than one of my favs, King David. A man after God's own heart, David screwed up a number of times. I ran across a short compilation of verses on the net (yes, surfing when I should be studying)

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever;

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him;

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

My President's Tax Return

Here is President Bush's tax return, presented for public scrutiny.

My Points of Funniness:

1. His address lists a P.O. box, even though the instructions say not to do that. The P.O. Box is in a state where he has never lived. Is it any secret that he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave? Also, he chose a state that has a sales tax. Hello, why not just pick good ol' TX?

2. He did NOT donate to the Presidential Election Campaign fund!

3. See line 8b. That is where the interest earned on tax-exempt bonds (such as GOVERNMENT bonds) would be listed and excluded from income. Notice this line is blank! Let me think...the president of the United States doesn't invest in government bonds. Does he know something we don't??

4. The President had $50,000 in capital losses. Wow. Who is his investor?? Though he only got to deduct $3,000, he at least gets to spread these losses over the next several years. Hopefully he will fire the current guy and use these to offset some future gains maybe?

5. See Schedule A, line 15b. That is the place where you could exempt donations to Katrina victims. The line is EMPTY! Hmmmmmm. He did give $75,000 to other charities.

6. President Bush didn't even sign his tax return. Neither did the first lady. At least he got to put "President" as his occupation. That would be cool!

Political Note: This entry was not intended to be partisan in any way. I'm a conservative independent. These were just some funnies from tax class in Texas.

A Big Congrats!

I want to send out a HUGE congratulations to my very good friend Mrs. Amy Brown!! She got a job at the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for the summer!!!

"He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." (Proverbs 13:20)

What an honor to have such a smart lady as my friend!

My Lord, My God

He Ain't The Leavin' Kind - Rascal Flatts

They tried their best to drag him out
of a courthouse down in montgomery
Now they want to kick him out of school
and take him off our money
They can take those words off of paper and stone
but he aint gone, no

He ain't the leavin' kind
He'd never walk away
Even from those who dont believe
and wanna leave him behind
He ain't the leavin' kind

She stayed mad at him for a lot of years
for taking her husband
Started losing her faith and thinking that
her life meant nothin
but when she looks at those kids
she raised all by herself
she knows she had some help
yeah she knows

He ain't the leavin' kind
He'd never walk away
Even from those who don't believe
and wanna leave him behind
He ain't the leavin' kind

No matter what you do
No matter where you go he's
always right there
With you

Even from those who don't believe
and wanna leave him behind
He ain't the leavin' kind

My Flowers.....

Mis Floras....aren't they beautiful??